First and Foremost: Yes, I am [scarcely!] enlightened enough to know evolution isn’t a linear process, and can grasp fairly well why “less”-evolved monkeys exist to this day.
The question I have is, were the Neanderthals a divergent species? I remember reading bits and pieces about them being intelligent but having died out mysteriously.
If you go back far enough, the Neandertals and we have a common ancestor. Heck, if you go back far enough a common slime mold and we probably have a common ancestor.
Most of what I’ve read (there are a ton of books on the subject) suggests to me that we and the Neaders are separate branches on the primate tree. Some have suggested that once upon a time there were several bipedal ape-like hominid creatures. One survived; the rest became extinct for one reason or another. Imagine if tigers, lions, pumas, jaguars, and all the other felines became extinct (not a really far-fetched possiblity, but that’s another issue), and the only surviving feline species was the common domestic cat. That wouldn’t mean your kitty was descended from the extinct tigers. Related, yes; descendent, no.
Recent DNA analysis suggests that they aren’t amongst our ancestors (a theory was previously that they could have interbreed with the sapiens).
The neanderthals were living only in the (then) cold western part of Eurasia and seem to have been somehow adapted to its harsh climate. They coexisted with the sapiens (us) , first in the middle east, then in Europe, when the latter began to settle in this part of the world. They were quite advanced in tool-making, apparently had religious rituals, buried their dead and even produced some art. I believe there are some evidence of cultural/technical exchanges between the sapiens and the neanderthals in the areas where they coexisted.
There are some debate re their abilities/intelligence as compared to us, but mostly speculations AFAIK. For instance, I believe some people had the theory that may be the neanderthals could have had a poorer speech ability (theory based on what?), or others stating they showed less inventivity/ imagination in their craftmanship/art. Others believe they were just as advanced/intelligent as we are.
They went extinct IIRC 30 000 years ago, for unknown reasons. Might have been the climate change to which they weren’t adapted, or they could have been simply outcompeted by our ancestors, or perhaps we plain killed them off, or perhaps we brought we us new diseases which decimated them, or any combination of the above.
I find them mightly intriguing, since they were so advanced and dissapeared so recently. It would have been amazing to have a second human race living along with us. Of course, knowing us, we would have exterminated them as soon as possible.
Who knows? Perhaps we were the barbarians and them the civilized, peaceful guys… "they declared us what? war? Does anybody know what they mean??? "
New Scientist magazine has its articles searchable online.
Doing a search on Neanderthal brings up a page of articles with a lot of the latest findings.
It’s looking less and less like homo sapiens evolved from them, interbreed with them, or did much of anything with them, not even kill them off. The environment apparently did that.
This is all informed speculation on the scientists’ part, of course. Subject to revision as more information is discovered.